It’s always very interesting to see how previous draft picks and trades pave the way for a big name player to be acquired. We looked into how Brandon Dubinsky became a Ranger, how Marc Staal became a Ranger, and how Tim Erixon wound up with the Rangers organization. Now, we look at a few of those deals, and how they all led to the Rangers acquiring Rick Nash. It’s interesting to note that all these transactions occurred with Glen Sather as GM of the Rangers.

  • 7/15/2001: Rangers sign Zdeno Ciger.
  • 12/12/2001: Rangers trade Zdeno Ciger to the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for Matthew Barnaby.
  • 3/8/2004: Rangers trade Matthew Barnaby and a 3rd round pick in 2004 to the Colorado Avalanche for Chris McAllister, David Liffiton, and the #37 pick in 2004 (The #37 pick was initially Florida’s, and was traded to Colorado in 2003 with Peter Worrell for Eric Messier and Vaclav Nedorost).
  • 6/26/2004: New York Rangers draft Al Montoya with the sixth overall pick.
  • 6/26/2004: Rangers trade the #37 pick in 2004 to the Florida Panthers for the #50 pick and the #73 pick (the #50 pick was originally Dallas’ pick for compensation for not signing free agent Derian Hatcher, and was traded to Florida in a deal for Valeri Bure)
  • 6/26/2004: Rangers trade the #50 pick in 2004 to the Phoenix Coyotes for the #60 pick and the #80 pick (the #60 pick was originally Philadelphia’s, acquired by Phoenix with Guillaume Lefebvre, and a 3rd round pick in 2003 in a 2003 trade for Tony Amonte).
  • 6/26/2004: Rangers use the 60th overall pick in 2004 to draft Brandon Dubinsky.
  • 6/24/2006: Rangers draft Bobby Sanguinetti with the 21st overall pick in 2006.
  • 6/24/2006: Rangers draft Artem Anisimov with the 54th overall pick in the 2006 draft.
  • 2/26/2008: Rangers trade Montoya and Marcel Hossa to the Phoenix Coyotes for Frederick Sjostrom, John Gratton, David LeNeveu, and a conditional fifth round pick. The conditions of the pick were that LeNeveu did not re-sign with the Rangers (he did not) and that Montoya played at least 15 games with the Coyotes (he did).
    • As a result of these conditions being met, the Rangers were award the fifth round pick in 2009, which they used on Roman Horak.
  • 6/26/2010: Rangers trade Sanguinetti to Carolina for a sixth round pick in 2010 (Jesper Fast) 2nd round pick in 2011 (used in the Tim Erixon deal).
  • 6/1/2011: Rangers deal Roman Horak, and two second round picks in 2011 to the Calgary Flames for Erixon and a fifth round pick (Shane McColgan).
  • 7/23/2012: Rangers trade Tim Erixon, Artem Anisimov, Brandon Dubinsky, and a 2013 first round pick to Columbus for Rick Nash, Steven Delisle, and a conditional third round pick.

There’s a lot of information there, but the seeds to acquire Nash were planted over 11 years ago when the Rangers signed Ciger, and eventually traded him for Barnaby. Those little move sometimes pay off in a big way.

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